This week promises to be a busy one in the Illinois General Assembly. Lawmakers in the state Senate and House of Representatives are rushing to meet a Friday deadline for passing most bills out of the chamber from which they originated. This week’s State Capitol Q&A takes a look at what legislators have on their to-do list.

Adriana Colindres

This week promises to be a busy one in the Illinois General Assembly. Lawmakers in the state Senate and House of Representatives are rushing to meet a Friday deadline for passing most bills out of the chamber from which they originated.

This week’s State Capitol Q&A takes a look at what legislators have on their to-do list.

Q: What's the significance of the Friday deadline?

A: Every year, the leaders of the House and Senate issue work schedules for the spring legislative session. The month-by-month calendars (posted online at www.ilga.gov) aren't especially detailed, but they include key dates such as legislative deadlines intended to help the lawmaking process move more smoothly.

Friday is the House's deadline for "third reading" of House bills. Translated, that means it's supposed to be the last day for the full House to vote on any bill that began in the House.

Friday also is the Senate's third-reading deadline for "substantive Senate bills" – a term referring to Senate bills that deal with pretty much any subject matter, except budget appropriations.

Any bills that pass in the House or Senate move on to the opposite chamber. To become law, a measure must be approved by the House and Senate and get signed by the governor.

Q: If a particular bill doesn't come up for a floor vote this week in the House or Senate, or if it fails to get enough "yes" votes to advance, does that mean it's dead for the year?

A: Not necessarily. There are various ways for a bill, or at least the concepts within it, to stay alive after the deadline.

For instance, Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan may set a later deadline for certain bills that await action in their respective chambers.

Another option is to attach the contents of a stalled bill into a different bill that has moved farther along in the legislative process. This approach might involve amending a "shell bill," which is a mostly blank piece of legislation that exists specifically so lawmakers can act quickly on an issue late in the legislative process if they want or need to.

Shell bills also generally are utilized in passing the final legislative version of a new state budget.

Q: What does Friday's deadline mean for major pieces of legislation, such as the state budget and the much-discussed capital construction program?

A: The Friday deadline has no effect on the big-ticket legislative items. Typically, such issues don't get resolved until closer to the end of the General Assembly's spring session.

The General Assembly eventually must OK a new budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Even though nothing requires lawmakers to agree on a capital construction plan, there is near-universal agreement that the state needs one.

Gov. Pat Quinn has said he wants the legislature to pass what some call a "mini capital" program by Friday. That would represent a piece of the larger, proposed $26 billion construction program, which Quinn wants to fund with higher drivers' fees.

Q: What have legislators accomplished so far during the spring session?

A: According to the General Assembly's Web site, 110 Senate bills had passed in the Senate and moved to the House as of Tuesday. About 450 House bills had passed in the House and advanced to the Senate.

Those figures are just a fraction of the total number of bills introduced to date: more than 2,400 in the Senate and more than 4,400 in the House.

The bills that have reached the halfway point in the legislative process cover a wide range of topics, including a higher speed limit for trucks on rural interstate highways and random steroid testing for high school student-athletes.

Friday is the last day before the legislature's "spring break." Lawmakers will resume work on April 21 at the Capitol as they head toward a scheduled adjournment date of May 31.

Adriana Colindres can be reached at (217) 782-6292 or adriana.colindres@sj-r.com.